Against "Pure" EPP Checking: Evidence from Further-Raising

Abstract

In this paper I attempt to throw some light on the issue of whether we need to appeal to an EPP feature (EPP-F) in order to account for why Tense heads demand that a specifier be created. I briefly review Boskovic's (2002) proposal that there is no ”pure” EPP checking, and that instances of DP movement to Spec-Tense can be motivated independently of an EPP-F in Tense. I argue that there are some problems with his conclusion because of confounding factors surrounding the data that he considers. I then provide data from Spanish further-raising constructions (see Fernandez-Salgueiro, 2011), which constitute a much clearer test bed for Boskovic's hypothesis. It turns out that the further-raising data provides stronger and less controversial empirical support for Boskovic's claim that the EPP-F should be eliminated from the grammar.